ECBKA NEWSLETTER – November 2014
www.ec-bka.com
It's hard to believe that it's actually November with the amount of pollen that my bees
are still collecting. The ivy has finished flowering & it looks suspiciously like
dandelion! I don't know where they can be putting it as the last time I saw inside the
hives there wasn't a single spare cell anywhere. I usually overwinter my hives on
brood & a half but this year I have hives on brood & 2 halves and double brood as well
as having more colonies than I intended to take into the winter. I only managed one
unite and that was only because a very strong colony took it into their heads to ball
the queen right in front of my eyes when I was removing the 2nd Apiguard tray.
We had a sizeable audience of members and guests for Dinah Sweet's excellent
presentation on mead making last month and I think the samples went down well too.
I hope that it has inspired some of you to have a go as I believe a mead class has
been requested for next year's show. There is plenty of time between now & August
to get it right – but don't drink it all, save a bottle for the show.
Our November meeting is the annual quiz against the Carmarthen BKA to be held at
the Cottage Inn. We have had a couple of volunteers for the team but don't be shy,
there's room for more. It is always an enjoyable evening and we hope to see some of
you there.
Don't forget that the committee is in the process of putting together the programme
of meetings for 2015. Please put forward any ideas or suggestions that you have.
Even if they are not needed for next year it is always good to have some ideas banked
for the future.
Finally, thank you to those people who answered my plea for some content for this
newsletter. It really does make putting it together so much easier and more
pleasurable when I actually have something to put in it. Nikki and John have sent
links to videos, John & Rheinallt have sent an account of their beekeeping
experiences this year (beginners take note) and of course we have Frank's eagerly
awaited seasonal notes.
Margaret
DATES
Thursday 6th November 7.30pm – Committee meeting
Thursday 13th November 7.30pm for 8.00 – Quiz night with buffet at The Cottage
Inn
Thursday 11th December 8.00pm – Home grown honey show
Thank you to Rheinallt, one of our newest members, for sending this account of his
first year beekeeping experience.
TALES OF A NOVICE BEEKEEPER
by Rheinallt Morgan
A beginners course was completed in spring 2012 at Carmarthen Beekeepers
Association and a National hive was bought the following year from Ebay and
assembled. It stood forlorn and empty for over a year in our wind swept front garden,
covered in snow and frost at times, whilst waiting for a swarm to arrive.
I had seen a beekeeping operation at Jessamine Eden Garden in Grenada, West Indies
during my mother's visit in June 2012 whilst I was on a pre-medical course there.
Jessamine Eden Gardens
Grenada, West Indies
My first year of practical beekeeping started on 26th April 2014 when I collected my 5
frame nucleus from Gerard Worthington at Bluegrass Honey Farm, Lledrod,
Aberystwyth with my mother. The nucleus was rushed home on the back seat of the
car and installed during light rain. My mother had one sting from a bee that found its
way into her suit whilst I had remained unscathed thus far.
The bees swarmed on 30th May whilst I was on a train to Birmingham Airport, about
to return to medical school in Malta. Fortunately they were on the ground, around the
base of a pine tree in our chicken run. My mother and a neighbour, Buddy Hughes
(who used to be a member of the ECBKA) managed to capture them and place them
in a hive. They swarmed a second time around on 11th June, I am grateful to Alan
Surman for collecting them and rehoming them temporarily.
My two colonies were inspected by Ade Bowen who was very cheerful and offered
some useful tips. The Comb and Disease workshop held in Pontarddulais was an eye
opener; it made me aware of “what lurks beneath”, although my mother was thrown
in at the deep end.
A single frame of honey was removed
and placed into storage as a keepsake
of our first year, whilst around 2lb of
comb honey was removed during an
inspection that Paul Smith and I carried
out in September, after our first apiary
meeting in Salem. I had forgotten that
I had run out of DN4 frames and used a
shallow frame instead to maintain the
bee space. This beautiful comb honey
was hanging down from the bottom
bars. It was cut off with a bread knife
and portioned into containers, making
it the first honey produced in the
village of Derwydd for several years!
Manley frame weighing approx 1.75kg
The hobby has developed from a curiosity fuelled by conversations with my neighbour
Buddy Hughes during adolescence, into a satisfying pastime and a scientific research
project. I am interested in the use of natural products as an antibiotic, an
advertisement was placed in the British Beekeepers Association magazine in
September 2012 asking readers to submit their propolis samples to me along with
their postcodes. 20 samples were received and will be processed over the next year. I
believe that propolis samples from more Northern latitudes will be less effective since
they have less sunlight, affecting the composition of the propolis. The results will be
published in due course.
My mother Helen and I would like to record our grateful thanks to Alan Surman, Frank
Gellatly, Paul Smith and all the members of the ECBKA past and present for their help
and support during our first year in beekeeping. May I take this opportunity to wish
everyone the compliments of the season.
Rheinallt Morgan
A VIDEO LINK
Nikki has sent this link to a video of a talk given at the 2013 National Honey Show by
Michael Palmer. He is a beekeeper from Vermont with about 700 hives who often
visits the UK to give talks. This one is called 'The Sustainable Apiary'. You will find
talks by Michael Palmer on other beekeeping subjects on You Tube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nznzpiWEI8A
John Burgess has sent this article from Catch The Buzz about research at BYU
(Brigham Young University, Utah) into using phages to combat AFB. Of course, we
don't use antibiotics to treat AFB in the UK. Do watch the short video as it explains
how phages work & has a lovely example of the AFB 'ropey' test.
USING MICROSCOPIC BUGS TO STOP AFB
Saving Bees, Stopping Antibiotic Use…What Could Be Better?
For decades, honey bees have been battling a deadly disease that kills off their babies
(larvae) and leads to hive collapse. It's called American Foulbrood and its effects are
so devastating and infectious, it often requires infected hives to be burned to the
ground. Treating Foul Brood is complicated because the disease can evolve to resist
antibiotics and other chemical treatments. Losing entire hives not only disrupts the
honey industry, but reduces the number of bees for pollinating plants.
Now researchers at BYU have produced a natural way to eliminate the scourge, and
it's working: Using tiny killer bugs known as phages to protect baby bees from
infection.
"Phages are the most abundant life form on the planet and each phage has a unique
bacteria that it will attack," said Sandra Burnett, BYU professor of microbiology and
molecular biology. "This makes phage an ideal treatment for bacterial disease because
it can target specific bacteria while leaving all other cells alone." Although phages are
plentiful in nature, finding the perfect phage for the job takes a lot of hunting. That's
where student Bryan Merrill comes in.
Merrill has been researching ways to treat American Foulbrood since joining a "Phage
Hunters" class his freshman year at BYU. Merrill loved the class, which introduced him
to the process of phage identification, and so he approached Burnett with hopes of
researching treatment for the disease under her tutelage.
"This bacteria has been a problem in honeybees for a long time," Merrill said. "It
infects the larva when they're teeny tiny. Even a few spores will infect and they'll start
eating the larva from the inside out. It doesn't hurt the adult bees, but all of the
sudden the bees can't replenish the population and the hive just collapses." When
hives are infected, beekeepers generally treat their hives with antibiotics. However,
this is usually only a temporary solution. If the bacteria returns, it will most likely
develop to be resistant to the antibiotics. From there, bee owners have the option to
burn the hive or try phage treatment.
"Phage is a great alternative to antibiotics, and it's a natural alternative because
phages exist in nature on their own," Burnett said. "And just the nature of a phage
itself is that it's self-replicating at the expense of the bacteria. It multiplies itself so
there are more of them to hunt down the bacteria. Then as soon as the host is gone,
the phage just disappears."
Once they identify the perfect phage, Burnett, Merrill and other students replicate it in
the lab so it can be applied to the hive with a sugar-water solution. Like a virus, the
phage get to work infecting the harmful bacteria until it is gone.
After a lot of gene sequencing and analyzing, Merrill has identified five phage
candidates for honeybee treatment, cleverly named after former BYU basketball stars
(Abouo, Davies, Emery, Jimmer1 & Jimmer2). His findings appear in a recent issue of
high ranking biotechnology journal BMC Genomics.
There is a terrific video demonstrating this at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj9_QGBJN0w
Thank you once again to John Dray for taking the time to recount the continuing
baptism by fire that is his introduction to keeping bees. Starting off with a nuc early
in the season is supposed to ease one in gently but the best laid plans …...
I haven’t written for a while and there has been a good reason… the bees
have kept me very busy this year. Breathlessly, I have come to the end of my
second season.
Here is why I am breathless… If I remember rightly the bees started to get busy this
year a month early. Relief that they had survived the winter rapidly turned to panic as
I realised that they wanted to propagate. I started the year with two hives. After three
‘failed’ artificial swarms (failed as in they didn’t stop the swarming impulse) from one
hive, I ended up with 5 colonies. Later, two of the artificial swarms swarmed… and the
original colony. Then the other colony, that I thought I had got away with, produced a
mega swarm. In the mean time, I collected two other swarms from other people and
frightened another away. Then one of the swarms and one of the original colonies
swarmed. Two of the original virgins failed. One of those received a donor cell, the
other received back the original queen (and retinue). Sold one of my artificial swarms
(once it had plumped up). Also sold the two ‘alien’ swarms. So I am now ‘down to’
seven queen-right colonies over two apiaries. The two original colonies and the mega
swarm all produced a nice harvest… total 200lb for the season. Pockets/bank/federal
reserve empty from buying all the extra equipment. Nosema and other checks all
clear! (Although I did feel a bit like Herod when I was collecting samples for the
microscope.)
So much for a peaceful hobby that will only take a couple of hours a week. Pah! Also
dispelled several other myths about ‘new queens not swarming’, ‘if a colony swarms
you won’t get any honey’. Found out one reason why bee keepers talk to their bees…
they get so enthusiastic that they don’t have any other friends ;-) Although some of
my conversations are along the lines of, ‘oh, you are doing well.’, ‘that wasn’t very
nice’ and ‘I’d rather you DIDN’T do that’.
Took advantage of several bee courses that are around - if you get a chance to go to
one of the ‘live disease’ workshops, go! They give you real examples of European Foul
Brood and American Foul Brood (among others)… so you can see and smell and touch
them. Nothing like seeing the real thing to know what you are looking for. Also learned
about looking at bee squashings under a microscope and how to make mead. (Note:
thank ECBKA committee for good speakers/other evenings.)
So, the bees are all wrapped up for the winter. This year I have put on entrance
reducers that are NOT supposed to require mouse guards. (The bees seemed very
upset with the mouse guards last year.) They are still flying around, catching the last
of the ivy on bright days. I don’t want to deter them from that. One colony that I was
worried about put on several kilos in a week just from the ivy flow. (I had been
considering supplementary feeding.) So, it is nearly winter. I am going to chat to a
farmer to see if he will take a few of my hives. I am also considering selling one or
two… but as a new bee keeper I am strangely attached to them. Then there is the
prospect of making up more frames. (Amazing how, after the first hundred you go
from ‘not sure’ to ‘production line’. After the second hundred you can do them in your
sleep. Many invest in a nail gun.) I have also purchased a cheap queen rearing kit for
the new year… nothing could possibly go wrong, could it?
One last thing: you did remember to take out all your queen excluders, didn’t
you?
John Dray
NOVEMBER NOTES
For many people this is the time when they can
look back over the year and enjoy the fruits of
their labour. One very important task beekeepers
can do over the winter is regular ‘quality control’
checks on their supplies of mead, honey beer or
sloe gin. This should preferably be done round a
roaring fire with a good beekeeping book. Don’t
forget we are entering the Christmas season of
good will and a beekeeping book in the Christmas
stocking will go a long way to ensuring the wellbeing of your bees next year. Now is the time to
start looking at those you fancy ready for broad
hints in December. I’ve been round all my hives
now, taken the feeders off and put 50mm
polystyrene under the roof. I’ve left the inserts under the open mesh floors for the
moment as I want to check the mite drop prior to any winter Varroa treatment. It’s
been low and I expect it to remain so for the time being. It’s important to clean off all
the debris from the inserts regularly, otherwise they become mouldy. The roofs are
either weighted down with bricks or tied with baler twine and I’ve got a bit of branch
and grass trimming to do around the hives after the prolific growth this summer. All
we can do is leave the hives as well prepared as possible for the winter and not
disturb them any more than is necessary.
Any appreciable honey flow from the Himalayan Balsam came in September and the
sustained mild temperatures have allowed colonies to work the abundant ivy flowers
in October. Pollen gathered from these crops have enabled more prolific brood rearing
this autumn. The temperature in the brood area at the centre of the cluster is
maintained at 34 – 35C, during broodless periods this drops to 20 – 30C. The
temperature on the outermost layer is kept above 10C throughout cold periods
otherwise the bees would become immobilised, drop off and die. As long as they have
stores and there are enough of them, they don’t. They obviously know what they’re
doing, so it’s best not to disturb them!
With the outside temperature below 18C now, the bees will have formed a cluster
around the queen and any brood which is still in the colony. Part of the cluster will be
in contact with food stores and it contracts as the temperature falls further, down to
being fully formed below 14C. The ball of bees has a compact outer shell of quiet,
fairly still bees and a looser inner core where the bees can move about, they generate
heat by eating honey and exercising their wing muscles.
The outer layers provide insulation to reduce heat loss from the cluster and there is a
slow, gentle movement of bees taking their turns as heat generators and insulators.
The cluster expands or contracts to maintain a constant temperature as the ambient
temperature varies. So the bees regulate the temperature within the cluster, not the
temperature in the hive.
Frank
Thank you so much to Frank, John & John, Rheinallt and Nikki for their contributions.
If you had good intentions but didn't quite get round to it my inbox is always open
and the December issue is beckoning already.
newsletter@ec-bka.com
2014 Committee
Margaret Watson - chair
Geoff Saunders - secretary
Huw Jones - treasurer
Frank Gellatly
Jen Dancey
Paul Smith
Stephen Smith
Contact: committee@ec-bka.com